Animal I Have Become
by xCyaniide
Summary: Various moments of Remus Lupin's life from the time when he became a werewolf.
1. Chapter 1

The body of a small boy had been found earlier that morning in an area renowned for werewolf attacks. The difference this time was that the boy was still alive. He had been badly bitten, lost a lot of blood and had been barely breathing when they found him. But he was alive.

Soon enough, the parents were informed that their precious little boy had been found and that is where this story shall begin.

"John, they've found Remus!" called a woman down an old, shabby hallway as she read a letter which she was clasping tightly in her hand. It had the header "St Mungo's Hospital of Magical Maladies" which would inform any witch or wizard that someone they knew was under the care of the hospital.

"What? Where? Is he alright?" came the voice of a second person who was apparently called John. This time, the voice was distinctively male.

"He's been bitten but that's all they'd say. He's in St Mungo's. Come on, we have to go and see him!"called the first voice once again and the two met in the hallway as they exchanged coats and then hurried out into the deserted street.

These voices were, of course, those of Remus' concerned parents. They had woken up that morning to find him missing from his bed and neither had any idea where their son had gone; all they knew was that he wasn't there.

A few months earlier, John Lupin had upset a werewolf known as Fenrir Greyback during a confrontation between Death Eaters and The Order of the Phoenix and at that moment, Fenrir had sworn that he would get his revenge sooner or later. And, to his word he had done.

The man and woman were clearly husband and wife and parents of the boy who had been kidnapped the previous evening without them even realising it had happened. Both were rather distraught to say the least and wanted nothing more than to be able to lead an ordinary life once more. This obviously wasn't likely to happen though, especially with the news that their four year old son had just been bitten.


	2. Chapter 2

Remus was lying motionless in his bed at St Mungo's and his lifeless form was covered in bandages, some of which had blood leaking through them already. A healer was hovering in the corner of the room awaiting the arrival of his parents in order to seek permission to use potions and healing charms on the boy to heal his injuries.

She watched the child sleeping and thought he looked remarkably peaceful for someone who had been through all he had in the past 12 hours but then she supposed he couldn't understand it all. Of course, the fact that he was unconscious probably had something to do with it as well.

She knew that his parents had arrived by the commotion coming from the corridor. It sounded just like two parents desperately trying to find their son. They were calling the name "Remus" over and over again and she sighed, looking at the poor child and wondering if he could hear them.

She walked to the door and opened it, ushering them inside and then closing it behind them once again.

"Remus, oh Remus," the woman, clearly his mother, cried as she grabbed his hand and held it in hers tightly, scooting close to the bed and whispering, "I'm sorry, Remus."

"Please try not to move him," the Healer said as she tried to move the woman away from her seriously ill son, "He's still unconscious at the moment so he won't be able to hear you. We need to get your permission to use certain healing potions and healing charms on your son in order to help him to get better more quickly," the Healer explained as she tried to calm down the hysterical woman in front of her.

"Do it! Use anything if it will make him better!" his mother cried as a small frown appeared on her husband's face at the way his wife was behaving. He soon found his wife clinging to him instead of the Healer, though, and he held her gently in his arms as he watched the Healer performing a few spells on Remus. "Will he be alright?" she asked whilst crying at the same time and trying to avoid looking at the blood stained bandages her son was wearing.

"He should be fine, although we aren't sure what affect the bite has had on him as of yet. There are tests we can do before the full moon in order to find out though," the Healer explained as she poured a goblet of potion for Remus and then helped his unconscious body to drink it.


	3. Chapter 3

A few days later, Remus was awake and slowly healing. He was still in a lot of pain and his bandages had to be changed on a regular basis but he hadn't complained once through the whole thing. His parents were watching him playing with a toy wolf as he sat in his hospital bed and they knew they had to tell him soon that he was a werewolf now.

The test results had been returned to them a few days previously and, sure enough, there was no escaping the fact that their son was now a fully fledged werewolf that would have to remain in St Mungo's every full moon under close observation until he was old enough to understand his condition properly.

"I'll talk to him," John volunteered, knowing it was his fault that his son was now a werewolf and that he would have to take responsibility for it, at least as far as telling his son what he now was. He walked into his son's room and sat down beside him on the bed. "Hello Remus," he said and the boy looked up and smiled politely at his father. "I'd like a word with you if I may," John requested, knowing how Remus liked formality, even at such a young age.

"Okay, Daddy," Remus replied, turning himself over in his bed to place the wolf on the desk on the other side of the bed before pulling himself up into a sitting position once more and facing his father.

"There's something you need to know about what happened to you," John said, trying to avoid using the word "attack" so as not to alarm the poor boy, "You now have a condition as a result of what happened."

Remus nodded, listening to his father speaking and then listening to the slight pause his father had made, almost as if asking Remus if he wanted to know more. Remus shook his head a little, "I was bitten," he stated, almost as if it meant nothing to him. "I was bitten by a wolf," he then confirmed with a slight nod.

His father frowned a little at that, "How do you know such things, Remus?" he asked, wondering if the boy had read the parchment at the end of his bed when the healers hadn't been looking. How else was he to know what had happened?

Remus smiled slightly, feeling as though he had done something wrong by knowing already. He knew he had to answer his father's question, though, and so he did, "Well..." he began, pausing for a couple of seconds, then pushing the duvet away from himself. His father made to stop him but Remus pushed his hand away and rolled up the front of his top, revealing a bite mark across his chest, evidently where the werewolf had grabbed him. "This matches the teeth of the wolf," Remus explained to his father, looking up into his eyes to see if he had done something bad.

John could only stare in disbelief at his son's words, though. How could the boy have known to check such things as the teeth in the toy wolf he had to play with? "You're right," John answered simply, now unsure of whether to go any further with the explanation he had been planning to give his son.

Remus soon clarified that there was no need to do so, however. He had worked it out for himself already. "But this mark," he pointed to one of the puncture holes on his chest, "This isn't a wolf's tooth. So I think it must have been a werewolf. Am I a werewolf now Daddy?" Remus looked into his father's eyes again with a slightly scared expression, almost as if he wanted to be a cool creature like a wolf but not the werewolf side of it.

John simply nodded, knowing his son was far too intelligent to try to hide anything from him as he would simply find out anyway from somewhere. "How do you know what a werewolf tooth looks like?" his father asked, knowing he had never been exposed to such things before.

"Oh, this isn't a werewolf tooth mark," Remus replied, frowning, "It's human. So he must have still been a human when he bit me, perhaps still changing into a wolf," Remus said simply, shrugging a little as he rolled his top back down and snuggled up against his father.

John nodded saying nothing more about it to his son. He knew that he understood already and doubted there would be much need to keep him in St Mungo's for many full moons. He was plenty intelligent enough already and he was sure he wouldn't have to be detained there.


End file.
